Rangers Sweep Indians On Young's 3-Run Double
ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - Michael Young hit a three-run double to go over 100 RBIs for the second time in his career and the AL West-leading Texas Rangers completed a three-game series sweep of Cleveland with a 7-4 victory Thursday night.
Cleveland's loss cut Detroit's magic number for clinching the AL Central to one. The Tigers played later at Oakland.
Josh Hamilton homered for the third straight game and Adrian Beltre also homered in extending his career-best hitting streak to 19 games.
Texas stretched its division lead over the idle Los Angeles Angels to 3 1/2 games. The Rangers (86-64) moved to 22 games over .500 for the first time since 1999, and now play nine of their final 12 games on the road, starting Friday night at Seattle.
Young's bases-clearing double in the fifth off Fausto Carmona (6-15) gave him 101 RBIs, and came after Hamilton was intentionally walked. Beltre followed with his 25th home run for a 6-0 lead.
Hamilton hit his 22nd homer in the seventh.
Alexi Ogando (13-8) allowed only two singles while throwing six scoreless innings. The All-Star right-hander struck out four and walked two while winning for the first time in a month. He had been 0-3 in five starts since his last win Aug. 15 at the Angels.
The Rangers went 9-1 against Cleveland this season, outscoring the Indians 68-32. Texas has won 21 of 25 in the series over the past three seasons.
Ogando was nearly flawless, except for a 39-pitch second inning when he got out of bases-loaded jam with consecutive strikeouts after both of his walks. He faced the minimum three batters the other five innings he pitched, getting Ezequiel Carrera to ground into an inning-ending double play after Jason Kipnis singled in the sixth.
The 40th double of the season for Young pushed him within two RBIs of his career high set five years ago. Young is only three hits shy of his seventh career 200-hit season.
Endy Chavez opened the Texas fifth with an infield single before his second stolen base of the game. Ian Kinsler then walked before Elvis Andrus' sacrifice bunt brought up Hamilton, who hit a grand slam Wednesday night.
Texas got its first run after Chavez had a leadoff single in the third to snap his 0-for-13 slide. He then got to third on a stolen base and a throwing error by catcher Lou Marson before scoring on a single by Andrus.
Ogando had already thrown 52 pitches after he struck out Lonnie Chisenhall and Marson to get out of the second. He needed only 40 more pitches to get through the next four innings, and had his longest outing in his last five starts.
Carmona, an AL All-Star last season, is 0-3 with a 6.97 ERA over his last six starts. Against the Rangers, the right-hander struck out three, walked five while giving up seven hits and five earned runs over six innings, and threw a wild pitch.
Shelley Duncan had a bloop RBI single with two outs in the seventh off Darren Oliver for the Indians' first run.
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